Fabulous Foothill Flowers
If you like wildflowers, then springtime is truly fantastic in our Salt Lake City Foothills! Silvery Lupine, Wasatch Penstemon, Utah Milkvetch, Western Bluebells, Longleaf Phlox, and Sticky Geranium are just a few of the blossoms you might encounter in this magical natural space.
Two especially eye-catching flowers are Mules Ears and Balsamroot. At first glance, they seem quite similar: they both have the large yellow petals (they are from the sunflower family) which makes them some of the showiest flowers to see as we walk, bike, or run along the trails. But look a bit closer and you’ll find they can easily be distinguished by their leaves: Mules Ears have dark-green long lance-shaped leaves, while Balsamroot has leathery, fuzzy, grey-green heart-shaped leaves.
Our impressive iconic state flower is the rare Sego Lily. These have three white petals in a tulip shape approximately three inches across, and they bloom for two to three weeks from June into early July. It takes a seed ten years to flower, and then it will bloom only every three to seven years. The bloom is short-lived and delicate. “The Wasatch foothills with their fast draining, warm southern exposures are a critical habitat for these plants,” Michael Piep, Assistant Curator of the Intermountain Herbarium at USU, told John Zsiray in a 2017 interview with HJ News. “If this plant is disturbed in any way it will not return! There is no State protection of the Sego Lily because Utah will only designate protection if federally regulated.” This means we must be mindful to protect the Sego Lily even when it isn’t blooming. Instead of touching the plant, take photos, note the day and GPS location of this as well as other wild flower sightings, and send them to the very informative iNaturalist website from the Natural History Museum of Utah.
The Sego Lily is one example of the fragility of our Salt Lake City Foothills—and a good reminder of why it’s important to be thoughtful about our recreational impact. When you are enjoying the wildflowers this spring, please stay on the trails! And when the trails are wet, consider staying off them altogether: puddles and mud lead us to walk, run, and bike on the side of the trails, which causes trail widening and erosion. Remember that some wild plants, such as our beautiful state flower, will never return once disturbed.
Enjoy the Salt Lake City foothills’ landscape, native plants, and wildflowers this spring. Take advantage of our trails to enjoy this environment, and use them mindfully so that we and future generations can all enjoy being in nature’s beauty!
Teresa Stepanek
